Part 52: Campaign Mission 21AGD: The Final Battle! as Andy, Grit and Drake - Part 3

Mission 21AGD - The Final Battle! as Andy, Grit and Drake (or "Operation Nap Patrol Redux") - Part 3

Last time on Advance Wars...



... we started taking the fight back to Sturm. We're approaching the endgame now, but one of the tricky parts is going to be pinning him down - he's still got a lot of resources to work with, and now he's on the defensive he's got a supply line advantage too. The other tricky part is going to be coordinating three big armies without them all getting in each other's way (I don't do so well at that).

Anyway, let's get cracking.

Day 15 - Andy



The most immediate threat is that medium tank.



Andy can't do much to it, though. Best leave it for Grit. At least we can capture these three cities, robbing Sturm of 3000G a turn and giving it to Andy.



B copter goes on the attack, although doing so leaves it very vulnerable to Sturm's bizarre pile of anti-air.



Since the loss of that B copter's pretty inevitable, better crank out another one.

Day 15 - Grit



Okay Grit, you're up. Let's show Andy how to really deal with a medium tank using arties.



Something like that, basically.



Mirrored curly arrows.



With that out of the way, let's start targetting some other things.



That river mech is gone, and the AA's been reduced to 2HP.



It's not all good, though: Grit got hit by a meteor last turn, and so comes the traditional round of joining all the damaged units together.



Not perfect, but it'll help.



And Grit's got plenty more units in the pipeline now.

Day 15 - Drake



Grit landed some big punches there, and now Drake gets the mopping up (really it should be Andy doing the mopping since it's he who makes the running in terms of power score, but he's got the disadvantage of always going directly after Sturm).



9HP infantry down, 2HP AA down.



And I can start trying to cap another city. Again, with all these AAs around it's probably doomed but oh well.



Medium tank finishes off a 1HP light tank, and here you can see what I mean about those AAs. I know two of those started out pre-deployed, but jeez Sturm.



Anyway, moving everything else up.

Day 15 - Sturm



Sturm's AAs go on their expected rampage.



Look at 'em go.

Day 16 - Andy



But the good news is, this draws them into range of Grit's cannons.



Although there's not much Andy can do to help with that. What he can do though is deposit an infantry unit up here. Together with Drake's two T copters, that should be enough to sow a bit of confusion around Sturm's base, and maybe even capture his HQ.



Other than that it's a pretty quiet turn for Andy. Moving some infantry up...



... and getting a second B copter. They're best used in packs, really, and I haven't been doing that so far. Let's see if we can get one going here.

Day 16 - Grit



Anyway yeah, smashing up AAs.



We'll take this one on first...



... and then send the one on the city packing.



Unfortunately, can't really reach the other one with arties right now.



So I guess we're going to be very un-Grit about this and attack it with a tank.



Moving more arties up, although some poor positional play has left them a bit exposed to Sturm in the north. Let's hope that doesn't cost me too bad.



If all else fails, we've got some Grit rockets coming down the pipeline. They should get the job done.

Day 16 - Drake



Once again Drake's got to mop up what's left after Grit's assault (random silly fact: Drake is called "Mop" in the Japanese version. Presumably they weren't thinking of this, though).



As promised, the T copters are flying in to help Andy's infantry with Operation Mess Sturm Up.



2HP rockets get rid of 2HP AA, and an artillery deals with the 3HP AA smoothly enough.



This actually gives us a bit of room to have a go at storming Sturm's citadel.



First let's send in an AA to attack one infantry...



... while another goes down to a medium tank/light tank double act.



Unfortunately we don't really have anything left over to block that base up with, so Sturm can keep producing units from it. Shame.



Let's keep the medium tank train a-rollin' though.

Day 16 - Sturm



Down goes a T copter - the 4HP one, incidentally.



And there goes that exposed artillery . Oh well, at least Grit has plenty more where that came from.



Drake's AA that led the charge on Sturm's base gets it in the neck.

Day 17 - Andy



One bit of good news is that Sturm didn't attack any of the infantry that are now sitting around on his doorstep, leaving them free to cause chaos. Like this one.



With that fighter Sturm's just deployed, we'd better get as much AA stuff as we can upfield.



Other than that though, another quiet turn for Andy, mostly shielded by Grit and Drake.

Day 17 - Grit



So let's go see what Grit's up to.



Arties damage a medium tank and destroy an AA.



And his tank chips in by taking out that 3HP infantry.



What to do about this B copter, though?



Well, we can always attack it with an AA, although again Grit's direct combat units continue to leave us with bits to tidy up.



Still, we've got plenty to chuck at Sturm, now.

Day 17 - Drake



Unfortunately for Drake, we've once again got a medium tank ammo shortage. And, sadly, APCs can't supply allies with fuel or ammunition (you've got to wait until Days of Ruin for that, I think).



Still, we can get a bit of use out of this middie yet: they've still got infinite machine gun ammo. Down goes the B copter.



The light tanks get some attacks in as well.



Rather tactical attacks, too - blocking up bases and limiting Sturm's ability to attack my capturing units. Every little helps.



Speaking of every little helps, here's a cheeky 2HP rocket launcher shot to keep that AA pinned down.

Day 17 - Sturm



Sturm rattles off a couple of attacks...

Day 18 - Andy



... but we've got him cornered now.



Adding insult to injury by stealing one of Sturm's bases.



And a B copter gets in on the action, wounding Sturm's medium tank here.



More B copter and AA movement. That fighter's a little worrying, though. Maybe Grit and Drake can block it of for us.



As usual, stuff moves up.



And I do a little more technique spamming.

Day 18 - Grit



So what can Grit do here?



A fair bit. There's a medium tank to attack, and a fighter too (stupid direct combat penalty).



And infantry help to block that fighter in as well.



We've also got a tank attacking a mech, and that's about it. Over to Drake to lay down the big shots.

Day 18 - Drake



All right, well Drake's got plenty to keep him busy here.



First let's finish off this medium tank.



That gives my own medium tank space to help a light tank finish off this HQ AA.



And would you look at that, the HQ's empty.



Let's start capturing it.



Finishing off a random damaged AA.



Annoyingly, these units are stuck back here because my messy offense has left them blocked in.



Well, let's bunch them up over here just in case Sturm's got an unexpected Meteor Strike coming or something.

Day 18 - Sturm

In fact, not only was there no Meteor Strike, but Sturm does no attacks at all on his turn.

Day 19 - Andy



Which means we're home and dry. Only thing stopping Drake from taking that HQ on his turn is, well, me forgetting about it (don't laugh - it's happened to me before).



Let's do a quick bit of tech-spamming in.



And a few more shots. Can't quite finish this bomber, unfortunately.



The B copters take out a tank, though.



And that's Andy done - not much point in moving anything else.

Day 19 - Grit



Grit can get a few more shots in, too.



A mech goes down to arty and tank fire.



And again I can't quite finish off a plane .



Oh well. Time to end this.

Day 19 - Drake



Fin



Incoming ham meltdown.

So close, I was so close... I underestimated the strength of these worms!

And yet you're still calling us worms? Oh well, I'll take it as a complement. Everyone knows worms are pretty good at fighting.

I... I've been beaten! My dream of world conquest... I vow that I will return! When that time comes, I will challenge you worms yet again!

And that, of course, is where the sequel comes in.



Goodness gracious! If it ain't my old friend -- big, bearded Olaf.
Is that you, Grit? What have I done...? I never realized Sturm was...

Oh hey. Remorse.

Don't get all long in the face now, Olaf. Everything turned out all right in the end. And Boss, you still got a lot of work to get done.
You... you're right.
Blue Moon's treated me well, and I'm in her debt. Well, what else can I do? What do you say? Can I help you rebuild her?
Hm? Do you mean you would forgive me my misguided deeds? Grit, you... you... (sniff, sniff)
Maybe it was worth Sturm foolin' him just for this.
Did you say something?
Nope. Not a word. Let's say we get movin' on down the road.

Aww . Well, kind of. And now we know why most of Olaf's AW1 dickishness gets forgiven in AW2.



Yeah, this time we really won!
And Sturm's army is gone for good, too.

Well, I wouldn't say "for good"...

Ah! What happened to Eagle?


Ahoy, cap'n!

It looks like you've weathered the storm! Or should I say, 'Sturm!'

Drake, I already did that pun

Captain Drake!
Don'y you worry your pretty little head over Eagle. He'll be back. He always keeps his word. No matter what!
Yes... Yes, he does!

Does he? Can't say I've really noticed either way. Oh well.

At any rate, you did great! But we've still got rough seas ahead of us.

Wait, what?

We've got to put right the country borders that Sturm muddled with. It's going to take some time for the fighting to die down.
Do you mean we're not done yet?

Hang on, hang on...

It's not as bad as all that. At the very least, it'll be fun seeing you all again!

Huh. Maybe this is the game's justification for the War Room? Or just that they had no idea what to do with the plot of a prospective Advance Wars 2 yet.

I think it'll be fun, too!
That's a good lad! Looking forward to testing your mettle again! Until next we meet!

No Fighting in the War Room, indeed.



Only a B-Rank after all that. In the end, Andy's inability to land killer blows cost him dear. We're going to have to work on that in the remaining Final Battles.

And here's the ending reel video, complete with some rather poignant music (Advance Wars endings do this rather well) and lots of units firing and getting completely wiped out in the counterattack somehow. Hope you enjoy.



A-Rank overall - on this run, at least. Hopefully I'll be able to scrape an S together on one of the other runs (I'm feeling good for the Andy-Max-Eagle run, at least). It's certainly been a tougher ride for me than AW2 Hard Campaign was, certainly. Funny how that works, sometimes.



But we're not done yet! One Final Battle's down, but there's three to go (wow, how fed up of Sturm are you guys going to be by the end of all this?). So, once you're done reflecting on the first of our four final battles, I'm going to need votes for Operation Golden Ending, Operation Dunderhead or Operation Orange Star (and a first preference and second preference too, please.